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Abstract

This paper provides an overview of recent developments in big data in the context
of biomedical and health informatics. It outlines the key characteristics of big data
and how medical and health informatics, translational bioinformatics, sensor informatics,
and imaging informatics will benefit from an integrated approach of piecing together
different aspects of personalized information from a diverse range of data sources,
both structured and unstructured, covering genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, as
well as imaging, clinical diagnosis, and long-term continuous physiological sensing
of an individual. It is expected that recent advances in big data will expand our
knowledge for testing new hypotheses about disease management from diagnosis to prevention
to personalized treatment. The rise of big data, however, also raises challenges in
terms of privacy, security, data ownership, data stewardship, and governance. This
paper discusses some of the existing activities and future opportunities related to
big data for health, outlining some of the key underlying issues that need to be tackled.